Slaughterhouse Gulch OHV Trail

Slaughterhouse Gulch OHV Trail is a 11.2 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Bailey, Colorado that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as difficult. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from March until November. Dogs are also able to use this trail.

dog friendly

camping

nature trips

bird watching

ohv / off road driving

forest

views

wild flowers

wildlife

rocky

Please note this trail is not for pedestrians. Please do not attempt to run, hike, or walk on this trail. It is only meant for vehicle use.
A fun hard-core loop close to Denver. Most of trail is in the trees and not very scenic. Great route for winter snow runs. (Mud bogs east of Waypoint 05 are permanently closed. Plans call for east end of F.S. 101 to open after reclamation of bogs is complete.) High Point 9,500 ft. Best time to go: June thru October. Located in Pike National Forest. For current conditions call Platte Ranger District (303) 275-5610.
Difficult. Narrow, tippy and rutted with washouts, small rock obstacles, tree roots and steep sections. Not overwhelmingly difficult for a well equipped, hard-core vehicle, but enough challenge to make it interesting. Roof damage possible due to tippy section through tight trees. (Trail conditions may be easier after maintenance.)
Watch for horseback riders and hikers should they venture onto this trail.

Trailhead

Popular area for unlicensed vehicles with lots of room to park and unload. Trail starts easy and gradually gets rougher. A few nice camp spots along route.

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Start of Loop

We turned right here and went around loop in counterclockwise direction.

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Enter Slaughterhouse Gulch

Road drops downhill and swings left into Slaughterhouse Gulch. Be careful at one point where tippy section, if wet, can slide you against the trees. Conditions vary depending on recency of maintenance.

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Turn Out of Gulch

Turn left uphill out of gulch and climb over ridge. A few small rock obstacles to contend with.

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Left Turn Back to Start

Turn left here on F.S. 101, which returns to start. Right goes to the Crooked Top Wildlife Area. This road has been closed for reclamation and could open at any time. There used to be some giant mud bogs down this road, but they are now closed. Watch for hikers and horseback riders in this area.

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Stay on the trail at all times and watch for hikers and horseback riders. More challenging when wet.
Trail conditions can change without notice.
Best time to go: June thru October. Located in Pike National Forest.
For current conditions call Platte Ranger District (303) 275-5610.

Fun trail! First time off roading. Just have a brand new, stock Tundra. There were only 2 or 3 features I didn't try due to ground clearance, but there were several challenging obstacles. Kids had a blast! I'd love to try it again with a lift and bigger tires, but totally doable with what I had.

Slaughterhouse road #105. The trailhead was easy to find with this app. In a sentence, “It’s basically a drive in the woods.” Nice trail, I wouldn’t rate it as “hard.” Close to Denver. Heavily trafficked. Some steep sections. Some rocky spots. Can be a little “tippy” in areas. The tougher sections all have an “escape route” around them. There’s nothing worth commenting on regarding the view. I think we took 2-3 pics and that was of the stock Rubicon we took over the trail. One time around is probably enough for me.

This is an easy trail, not sure why it is rated hard. I’ve done it a few times now in my stock Tacoma TRD Off Road; there is one steep section where rear locker is helpful. Have also done it in a stock 2001 Sequoia — no lockers but just requires correct line selection.

Was pretty fun, not too many views except a few spots. Easy in some spots but difficult in others. I did the whole loop in about an hour and a half.
Jeep Wrangler 2010
34” Tires and 3.5” lift

Dion S.

off road driving

3 months ago

Great trail! Ran it yesterday with a class in my stock Cherokee Trailhawk. Was even able to do the difficult sections without having to take the bypasses. Helped having an instructor and spotter to help with the correct lines.

Not a hard trail, it’s easy driving with 2 or 3 moderate sections. Stock 4wds are able to compete (with a non-millennial driver who can actually change a tire or check their oil.) Nice ride though, mostly dirt and hardly bumpy. There’s a few technical sections. This is a fast trail for the length. Good camping too.

great trail! took a bone stock 99 Jeep Cherokee with 31" all terrain tires on this trail and made it with no problems. was able to do most difficult sections, but had to swerve around some areas because I didn't have lockers. great trail making for lots of fun

D B.

off road driving

11 months ago

This was a good off-road trail. We did it with our 2004 Land Rover Discovery II stock and Copper Adventurer HT tires (yes HT). Granted that when possible we used the moderate "bypasses". For those more "difficult" sections we did take advantage of everything that our truck has to offer, 4 low range, diff lock and traction control. Bottom line, it is doable with the right rig, even stock and some experience (we did the 100 miles of the White Rim in Moab using the same Disco in exactly the same stock configuration).

Sweet trail close to town, has a couple areas that require some ground clearance but nothing major. The Aspen trees are all starting to change color and look awesome.
2011 Jeep wrangler 2D
2.5" lift
33" tires

This was a fun trail. I did it on a stock FJ cruiser with some 285 tires with no lift. Most of the trail was pretty doable and there were a few parts going back up hill that we had some difficulty but nothing major. Seriously a really pretty drive...only saw two other cars out there both more well equipped that mine so they were able to speed along a bit more . Also had a few areas with some deep standing water (2 feet deep or so) but looked like there was just enough room to go around it a bit. I’ll give this one another try when my rigs upgraded a bit :)

Ashley C.

off road driving

Sunday, August 05, 2018

Easy enough for our first trail since putting a 4" lift to our 4d JKU with 33s.(soon to be 35s) My husband and I split up the trail so we'd each have some fun driving. This is our 4th Jeep between the two of us;first one we've lifted ourselves, so a good "trial" run to see where we want to adjust. I could see how some mud during certain times could cause some issues, but not too bad. Nice, mellow 4x4'in trail to loop around in a couple hours.

Very rugged and technical trail, very rocky in some spots. Make sure your clearance is high enough for some of the obstacles, although you can opt to go around some of them. Was there on Friday and seen only a couple other people, wish there was more. We went right down the first decline (or drop in) to the gulch, made it to the mid point of the trail before getting confused and decided to turn around and go back the way we came. All in all it was a great little quick and fun trail to get my feet wet.

Fun trail and in good condition after the recent rains!! You definitely need a higher clearance vehicle and 4-Lo to navigate the technical areas, but I think a stock Jeep could make the loop as long as the driver is careful/skilled with wheel placement. Most of the trail was Easy/Moderate with several stretches that had difficult sections (or you could take a “moderate” bypass). Good challenges on the difficult climbs and very scenic terrain. Looking forward to doing this one again.
1999 Jeep TJ Sport
3.5” Lift
33” wheels @ 20 psi for a smoother ride

we ran this trail yesterday.
2007 wrangler Sahara Unlimited
3.5 pro comp lift
35 in tires
32 psi
a couple of snow piles nothing you could navigate the trail was clean and easy to navigate well kept and a lot of fun. Mostly dry except in the valley. this would be easy for just about any vehicle with a moderate list. hell of a lot of fun.

This was a fun trail for the most part. From pavement to pavement, took about 90min total. There are a few rocky spots that are fun for sure. Don’t let the difficult rating scare you off. It’s worth doing. We will go back.
2015 Rubicon